The Next Great Dark Fantasy Saga Is Called Monstress

Marjorie Lu and Sana Takeda are bridging the gaps between comic book genres.

By Meg Downey

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Over the last decade, pop culture has been in the throes of an epic fantasy renaissance. From prestige television like Game of Thrones to all-ages cartoons like She-Ra and The Princesses of Power to the explosive resurgence of tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons care of podcasts and livestreams, audiences everywhere are hungry for swords and sorcery -- and even the traditionally cape and cowl dominated world of comic books is taking note of the trend in its own, totally unique way. Writer Marjorie Liu and artist Sana Takeda's award-winning ongoing series Monstress from Image Comics (See it on Amazon) has presented western comics with their very own fantasy epic by weaving the threads of classic superhero tropes, action manga style, and expansive world-building into a brand new cloth.

On the surface, Monstress is the story of a teenage girl named Maika Halfwolf who is what's known as an "Arcanic," a sort of magical creature with features that borrow from both humans and animals. Maika is lucky in that she passes completely as a human, but other Arcanics don't fare as well, possessing everything from giant feathered wings to fox-like ears and tails. Passing is a problem, given that Arcanics are hunted as food and sold into slavery by the "Cumaea," an order of witches who gain their power by consuming Arcanic flesh. Unsurprisingly, the Arcanics and Cumaea have been at war with one another for hundreds of years, and Maika is caught in the middle, set on killing the Cumaea who murdered her mother.

But there's a problem in Maika's plan for revenge. Her body -- or, more specifically, the stump of her severed left arm -- is possessed by a giant, Elder God-type creature that is able to emerge and take over if Maika doesn't "feed" it the energy of her fellow Arcanics. The god is mentally linked to Maika, making her devastatingly powerful and dangerous, but the cost -- and the potential risk to any of Maika's allies, is almost too great to make that power worth it.

Stories about persecuted outsiders aren't exactly new in terms of western comics -- the X-Men basically defined the genre for a generation by way of difficult-to-miss metaphors about mutants challenging the status quo set by humans, but where Monstress excels is in taking that metaphor to its next logical extreme. The war between the Arcanics and the Cumaea will resonate with Marvel fans as much as their favorite X-Men epics, but it accomplishes this by turning the dynamic on its head. Both the Arcanics and the Cumaea hold power that is innate to themselves, either as magic or as physical mutation, and both are bolstered by the bureaucracy and political systems developed by their respective kingdoms. The Arcanics are unlike mutants in that they're not hated or feared by the Cumaea, but prized and hunted, and the Cumaea are unlike humans in that they're reliant on their own magical abilities to ensure their superiority.

Of course, these slight differences also make for an almost endless amount of grey space between the two sides. Arguably the Arcanics are the heroes, if only because Maika the protagonist is an Arcanic, but neither side has clean hands -- something that Maika struggles to cope with as she sets out on her journey. This adds yet another layer of complexity onto Monstress's already sophisticated narrative, providing virtually endless possibilities for reveals and character arcs. The potential for revelation about exactly who is in the right and what their real motivations may be adds a level of nuance that would be right at home in the most classically beloved epic fantasy novels.

But that doesn't mean that Monstress is too high concept. It manages to avoid feeling too dense or too self-involved by playfully highlighting Maika's flaws as a hero. She's anything but a traditional protagonist and her journey is anything but valorous. She's selfish, sullen, usually crass; reluctant to trust new allies and quick to judge new enemies. Her bad temper and rude behavior is tempered by her unwitting sidekick, Kippa, a young fox-like Arcanic girl, who evolves into a sort of moral compass for Maika's bloody crusade. Kippa's unapologetic naive and innocence provide a perfect -- frequently hilarious -- counterpoint to Maika's swarthiness. And her habit of clenching her giant, fluffy fox tail like a security blanket is just downright adorable.

Stylistically, Monstress borrows from elements of Japanese manga and anime, infusing both the character and world designs with vibrant, quasi-traditional flavor that feels like it could be right at home in something like Princess Mononoke. The clear effort both Liu and Takeda have put into developing the rich lore and history that bolsters Monstress gives the story a massive scope and scale, comparable to weekly manga series that boast massive casts and astronomical chapter counts, though Monstress itself currently has a total of 18 issues which are now packaged into three volumes. It feels cinematic in the same way the best manga does, dancing gracefully between high octane action and deep interpersonal conflict with time to breathe between beats.

The end result is a story that fits happily between the lines of comic genres all while maintaining the dramatic forward momentum of the best classic high fantasy stories. From its gorgeous styling to its modified superhero tropes, Monstress has managed to find the best of each world it borrows from and build them into something greater than the sum of its parts.